Wow... Gainax never ceases to leave me at a loss for words with a conclusion. We've gone through 26 episodes and however many weeks of analysis up to this point, and all I can think is...
...the mechas flung galaxies at eachother like shuriken!
That is genuinely, legitimately, beyond-a-shadow-of-doubt something I've never seen anywhere else. Something I never could've thought of. The best comparison I can make is to the comic, SCUD THE DISPOSABLE ASSASSIN, and that isn't an adequate comparison. GURREN LAGANN is an adolescent fever dream. It's fueled by emotion and energy, not reason. The spiral dial exploding from its confines, the Russian doll-style Gurren Lagann attack, Boota's last-minute humanization, the nonsensical anti-spiral/spiral rivalry and its accompanying metaphysical gobbligook... it all feels like something a hyper kindergarten's making up on the fly.
And that isn't a criticism!
None of this stuff needs to make sense. In fact, the show's better if it doesn't, and that's really beyond the whole notion of "dumb fun." This whole thing reminds me of that old observation about how every kid in kindergarten loves to draw, only for the world to beat that interest of them with each grade. GURREN LAGANN is not for those with constipated imaginations.
This is one of those rare times I've watched something that truly felt like a lucid dream. Nia’s “vanishing” is really part and parcel of that. She’s like this dream of a girl that Simon's holding onto as long as he can, even he's starting to wake up and lose her. Look at her character through that context, and her impossible purity makes a lot more sense in the scheme of the show's metaphor.
On a serious note, while I preferred EVANGELION as a drama, I think the philosophical message was presented more cogently than in this show. They basically have the same theme, but this doesn't have a lot of confusing, knotted-up psycho-dialogs. Anyway, the way I see it is... most limitations facing you are self-imposed. They're given power simply by your perspective and attitude. So just because the anti-spiral presents his argument that spiral power is dangerous to the cosmos, that’s ultimately only his assessment. These knuckleheads don’t have to accept his reality over theirs. And that's a message you can actually apply to your life.
I still need time to digest this. I think we'll be talking about this for a while.Watch this final episode, “All the Lights in the Sky are Stars” below, make your own decisions and read my comments on the previous episode here.
Tom Pinchuk’s the writer of HYBRID BASTARDS! & UNIMAGINABLE . Order them on Amazon here & here .
